Lifelong Learning: Good for Seniors’ Minds & Bodies
Springtime means graduation season. There is a recent and growing trend among college graduates that is garnering a lot of attention. According to the National Center for Education Statistics, by 2020, 43 percent of college students are expected to be age 25 and older. And among these older grads are more and more seniors, who [...]
Medicare and Continuing Care Retirement Communities (CCRCs)
In a previous post titled Long Term Care: What Does Medicare Actually Cover?, I described the possible out-of-pocket financial impact someone may face by receiving care in a private-pay skilled nursing facility (SNF) versus a Medicare-certified SNF. In a nutshell, Medicare Part A will cover medically necessary skilled nursing care—for a limited time and limited amount—if certain [...]
Mind the Gap: Seniors with Nowhere to Turn for Support
There was a heartbreaking story in the Washington Post this week about an elderly man in China named Han Zicheng, who tried putting himself up for adoption. His wife had died years ago, and his adult sons had moved away and rarely called or visited. This 85-year-old man thought he would try to find a [...]
Retiring the “Sales Counselor” Title at CCRCs?
Salespeople and advertisers often get a bad rap. Right or wrong, there is a definite stereotype around people who make a living off of selling everything from office supplies to pharmaceuticals to, yes, used cars. At the heart of this stereotype, I believe, is people’s concerns about being pushed into a decision they are not [...]
Do You Need to Update Your Estate Planning Documents?
I’m a planner; I like to be prepared for whatever the future might hold. This trait is in part what drew me to my previous career as a financial advisor, as well as the reason I’m now an advocate for continuing care retirement communities (CCRCs, or life plan communities), which provide their residents with the [...]
Everyone Wins: Why Society Must Tap into Seniors’ Experience & Wisdom
Last week’s post on people’s fear of catching the “old disease” got me thinking about a related topic that I often discuss when I present to groups: ageism and the so-called “invisible senior.” I wrote a blog post about this issue last fall, but I also recently gave a talk at the Key5 conference in [...]